ESB

One of my best friends was having his first child and I wanted to brew something special for his new baby's arrival.  He and his wife decided not to find out whether it would be a boy or a girl so it made my style choice somewhat difficult.  I decided on an ESB because it was a pretty straight forward beer that appeals to most palates, and because I could play on the ESB name by making my label say "Extra Super Baby".  The label was awesome, and the beer turned out just great, just like my friend's new little girl.  I used my small batch single kettle e-BIAB and scaled down the below recipe to 3.5 gallons.

Grains:

14# 2-row

.50# c-40

.38# c-120

.25# Special Roast

.50# Aromatic Malt

Mash at 154

Additions:

90 min boil

1.5 oz EKG at 60

.5 oz EKG at 20

1 oz EKG at 1

S-04 at 68

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Cali-Belgique IPA

Having just lagered my Leffe Blonde that was raised up on a 2L starter, I wanted to reuse my Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale yeast.  I had recently enjoyed a bottle of Stone's Cali-Belgique IPA so I decided to brew something similar.  Stone's beer is supposedly just their standard IPA with belgian yeast.  The recipe below is the one from BYO.  I used my CB20 system for this brew.  I'm not sure if it was because I reused the yeast cake from my Leffe Blonde, but I was not happy with the results of this beer.  I kegged it and kept hoping it would get better after a few months, but it just didn't finish right on the palate.  Probably because of the yeast.  I have not enjoyed the beers I have made with reused yeast cakes and will likely never use one again.  I bottled the remainder of the keg with the hopes the beer may round into form some day.

Update (11/29) - I cracked a bottle of this one last night and was very surprised to taste a much better beer.  Based on the amount of yeast that dropped to the bottom of the bottle I suspect this one needed some time to age before it came together.  It was way too yeasty on tap.  I doubt if I would make it again, but I am very happy to report that the beer now tastes the way it was designed to taste.

Grains:

12.75# 2-row

.875# c-15

Mash at 149   

Additions:

90 min boil

.43 magnum at 90

.64 perle at 90

2 oz centennial at 15

1 tsp irish moss at 15

1 oz centennial dry hop

.5 chinnook dry hop

Reused Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale cake     

Ferment at 66    

10 day dry hop   
OG 1064   
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Mosher's Ideal Pale Ale

Water Adjustments (tsp)

.587 Epsom Salt

.066 Chalk

4.407 Gypsum

Ca=120

SO4=269

Mg=19

Na=27

Cl=70

Carb=65

Hard=377

Alk=57

    

Citrillo Wheat

I had been hearing great things about the new citra hop but knew that it needed to be used in the proper quantities.  I had 55lbs of wheat sitting in my basement waiting to be used so I decided to brew a slightly hoppy summer wheat.  Man did this recipe deliver.  It was by far my favorite beer of the summer and the keg did not last long.  I used my single kettle e-BIAB setup with a full volume continuous recirculation.

Grains:

4.25# 2-row   

4.25# wheat   

Mash at 149

Additions:

75 min boil

0.4 oz Citra FWH

.625 oz Citra at 15 min

.625 oz Amarillo at 10 min

1 oz Amarillo at 0 min

1 oz Amarillo Dry Hop 10 days

S-05 at 65-68

OG 1047
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Water Adjustments (tsp)

.6 Epsom Salt

.102 Chalk

Ca=36

SO4=61

Mg=17

Na=27

Cl=70

Carb=67

Hard=162

Alk=59

Leffe Blonde

I have a fond memory of one of the first beers that introduced me to Belgians, Leffe Blonde.  It became one of my go-to beers and I ordered it often at Teresa's Next Door when my sister worked there.  My wife has become a fan of it as well and I wanted to brew this beer for her.  I kegged the beer and it took about 3-4 months to really round into form.  If I make it again, I will bottle condition it.  This was a really good beer.  I used my CB20 system right before I revamped it into a HERMS system.

Grains:

11# Pils          

.5# wheat       

1.5# Cane Sugar

.5# Aromatic  

Mash at 150

Additions:

90 min boil

1.6 oz Hallertau 4% at 60 min

Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale  

64 pitch raise to 68 over 1 week       

1 month lager 45-50 degrees

OG 1066
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Water Adjustments (tsp)

.6 Epsom Salt

.102 Chalk

Ca=36

SO4=61

Mg=17

Na=27

Cl=70

Carb=67

Hard=162

Alk=59

Watermelon Wheat - Revisited

This was the second time brewing my watermelon wheat recipe and first time kegging it.  I brewed it previously, to rave reviews I might add, and bottled it.  My original recipe added the watermelon candy oil into a secondary after 10-14 days of primary fermentation.  I found that the the watermelon flavor was too strong going right to the keg this time and it needed about a month to mellow in the keg.  In the next batch, I will add the flavoring at pitching to see if it makes a difference.  I used my CB20 system for this brew day.

Grains
5.5# 2-row
5.5# wheat
.25# c-10
.25# c-20
mash at 154

Additions

60 min boil

1 oz Amarillo at 45 min

1oz Amarillo at flame out

S-05 for 10-14 days at  66

1 dram watermelon Lorann candy oil into secondary for 10 days
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Water Adjustments (tsp)

.6 Epsom Salt

.102 Chalk

Ca=36

SO4=61

Mg=17

Na=27

Cl=70

Carb=67

Hard=162

Alk=59

Pliny the Elder - Ordinary Bitter Partigyle

Perhaps the greatest IPA ever created, Pliny the Elder holds a warm and tender spot in my heart.  It is the only beer that lives up to its tremendous hype, in my humble opinion.  I have had Pliny the Younger, and I still prefer the Elder.  Vinny gave out his recipe many years ago and it is a very good recipe, but you just know it is not the real thing when drinking it.  This was my second time brewing the recipe and I did a blind taste test with a fresh bottle of Pliny from the west coast.  It is darn close, but the finish just isn't the same.  Likely due to the enormous amount of dry hops, this beer continually changes in the keg and in the bottle.  It typically gets darker for me over time.  Because of the higher gravity of the mash, I decided to try a partigyle brew from the second runnings.  The resulting ordinary bitter turned out to be really, really good.  If I brew Pliny again, which I know I will, I will always make this ordinary bitter on its heels.  This was a long, but very fun brew day.  I used my CB20 system for the Pliny and my 5 gallon stockpot on the stove for the ordinary bitter.

Update (11/22) - I found a bomber of this brew stashed away in my basement and delightfully cracked it after work.  It was so much better than I remembered on tap, the simcoe hops punching through, the color did get darker as it had for me before.  I was on the fence about brewing this one again with the upcoming hop shortage, but I may have to make it again.

Grains:

15.25# 2-row

.5# Wheat

.5# c-40

Mash at 150

Additions:

90 minute boil

1.5# corn sugar          

2 oz warrior at 90

2 oz chinook at 90

1 oz simcoe at 45

1 oz columbus at 30

2.25 oz centennial at 0

1 oz simcoe at 0

3.25 oz columbus dry hop 10 days

1.75 oz centennial dry hop 10 days

1.75 oz simcoe dry hop 10 days

S-05 ferment at 67 ferment raise to 70

OG 1070
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Mosher's Ideal Pale Ale

Water Adjustments (tsp)

.587 Epsom Salt

.066 Chalk

4.407 Gypsum

Ca=120

SO4=269

Mg=19

Na=27

Cl=70

Carb=65

Hard=377

Alk=57

3 gallon Ordinary Bitter Partigyle

Mash Additions:        

.25# C-120

.125# Special Roast

Added 3.5 gallons of 170 water, stirred and let sit for 15 minutes or so     

Boil Additions:
60 min boil

.6 EKG at 60

.25 EKG at 30

.25 EKG at 1

           

s-04 at 68 degrees
OG 1044     
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Berliner Weisse

I first sampled a Berliner Weisse at Tria the summer before when my sister was working there.  It was a Dr. Fritz Briem 1809 served with woodruff syrup and was amazing.  It is a nice intro to sour beers.  So I set off researching the style and the multitude of techniques for brewing this beer.  I settled on going with a 15 min boil and using lacto.  I used my single kettle e-BIAB setup with a full volume continuous recirculation.  The European Ale was slow to ferment and after a week I pitched a packet of S-05 for safe measure.  I let it sit for 3 months and kegged it, which was a big mistake.  It had no sourness and was very boring.  I almost poured out the keg but decided to bottle the remainder with my new bottling adapter that lets me go right from the tap to the bottle without changing any pressure.  A few months later I cracked a bottle and was stunned, the beer was perfect, great carbonation, great head, great sourness.  Just a great Berliner Weisse all the way around.  Lesson learned, always bottle this beer.

Grains:

4.2# Pils

3# Wheat

Mash at 149 for 90 mins       

           

Additions:

15 min boil    

1 oz Hallertau at 15 min

Wyeast 1338 – European Ale and Wyeast lacto

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Poland Spring water with no adjustments